Fairy Tales, Snow, and New Year's Eve
by TardisInWonderland
Summary: A New Year's Eve trip gone wrong and a little girl in need of a bedtime story. The best stories are lived, though they may simply need a little fairy dust. Fairy tale fic... slightly fluffy.


_An only slightly late New Year's Eve fic! It's one-shot and I'd been thinking about it for a while. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

><p>"No, no, <em>no<em>! Everybody out!" The Doctor called, ushering Amy, Rory, and River out of a smoking TARDIS console room and into the cold night air. Over nineteenth century London the sky was clear and the air was crisp, with specks of white-bright stars shining through the sky's velvet black. The Doctor followed the trio, dirty from the oily smoke and coughing through his complaints.

"Oh, come on old girl!" The Doctor called. "What's gotten into you now?" He stoked the wood like a parent coercing an upset child.

"Great. We're in the middle of London in- what was it?" Rory asked.

"1868." River supplied.

"Right, 1868, and the TARDIS is broken." He finished. The Doctor scoffed, waving away the last of the smoke, and walked back inside, not bothering to close the doors.

"Could be worse." River said, smiling smugly. "We _could_ be in a bad area of town, which we're not, or we _could_ have landed near Buckingham palace, where I'm sure Queen Victoria is waiting to-" she took a moment to call inside the open TARDIS doors. "Sweetie, didn't Victoria banish you on pain of death?" The Doctor popped out the doors long enough to answer her question, taking in Rory and Amy's stunned faces.

"Well, yeah, but I had a different face then, and she hasn't actually done it yet!"

"Assuming it's actually 1868." River whispered after he'd gone back inside.

"It is!" The Doctor called, popping back out even dirtier than he'd been before. "But, unfortunately, it is 1868, there's a police box parked in the middle of the street, and-"

"It's starting to snow." Amy chimed in

"Yes, it's starting to- _what_?" The Doctor stopped, squinting up at the completely clear sky. "No, it's not, it's…" a flake landed on his outstretched palm.

"Snowing." Amy said.

"Ok. So it's impossibly snowing." The Doctor said. River laughed and pointed his gaze to the light of the TARDIS, where flakes were being shot into the air in an arc.

"You know how she likes to make it snow, sweetie. And being as there aren't clouds to work with, I'm assuming alternate means were necessary."

"Oh, so the engines are in a dire state of disrepair, but she can still make it snow?" The Doctor said, only slightly annoyed. "Either way, I can't fix it- not entirely. She needs time to reboot and fix what _she_ needs to so _I_ can fix what I can."

"Doctor, if we're still planning on spending New Year's Eve here we need to find shelter. Snow or no snow, it's freezing out here. _Literally_." Rory said. River was thinking how bad an idea it was for her to be in extreme temperature conditions in her… situation. The Doctor smiled.

"Come on, I have an old friend who lives around here." He said, jogging off down the street. They stopped about a block down the road in front of an inn, and the Doctor rapped on the door loudly. An annoyed woman's voice came from inside and footsteps headed for the door.

"Do you all bloody know what time it-" The bolt unlatched and a stunned woman stood in front of them. She had a long face and brown hair tucked up in a bun, shot through with streaks of premature white. "Oh."

"Allison…" The Doctor said, smiling.

"Doctor?" She asked, still stunned. The Doctor nodded and hugged her. "It's been two years since I saw you last! Come in, come in." She ushered everyone inside out of the cold and into a fire lit den.

"Would it be too much trouble to get a room, Allison?" The Doctor asked. "I'm having some problems with my… erm… ship again, and I don't think we'll be able to get inside for a bit. Oh, and this is Amy, Rory, and River." They shook hands with Allison.

"So, which one's the wife?" Allison joked, and the Doctor took River's hand with a chuckle.

"Well, it's a bit complicated, but she is."

"Never thought you'd tie the knot!" Allison said, laughing. "Well, we've got one room I can let you have, but I'm afraid all the other are full. Someone could stay in the den if you like; there's a fire going all night."

"You two take the room." River said to Amy and Rory. "We'll be fine. Time Lords can go without sleep for weeks on end. Thank you so much." The last part was directed at Allison, who nodded and picked out a key from a rack on the wall.

"I'll be off to bed now. Here's the key to your room." She handed it to Amy and Rory. "The new year starts tomorrow! Best get some rest and I'll see you in the morning." Allison started up the steps and a door shut somewhere. After a quick goodnight Amy and Rory followed, leaving the Doctor and river alone in the den.

"Does New Year's Eve ever get old for you?" River asked.

"Why?"

"Because it would seem like in the TARDIS… years are irrelevant. You can go to any year you want in any time, and wouldn't that just make it pointless to call it a new year?" River asked.

"I suppose so. I've never actually thought about it much. If you overthink things the fun gets taken out in the thinking." The Doctor smiled, taking a seat on a bench. River sat beside him, leaning into his shoulder.

"Like us?" The Doctor shifted and raised an eyebrow. "Our life. Our relationship." River said. "If you think about it too much it makes you sad, but just looking at the here and the now…" She leaned in for a kiss, the Doctor pulling her closer, but just before their lips touched they were interrupted by a voice from the stairs.

"Mum? Is that you?" The couple pulled apart as a little girl of seven or eight walked down the steps from the rooms and into the den. She was wearing a nightgown and hugging a bear.

"Hello, Eloise." The Doctor said, rising. She smiled when she saw him and ran up to give him a hug.

"Doctor! You're back!"

"Yes, for now. I'm having some problems with my TARDIS, so we're here for tonight. This is River." He gestured to her and River walked over to meet Eloise.

"Hello." River said. Eloise waved hesitantly.

"I thought you were mum. I can't sleep." She said to the Doctor, clutching her stuffed bear tightly. "Bad dreams."

"Bad dreams?" The Doctor said, kneeling in front of her. "We can't have that, now can we?" Eloise bit her lip.

"Mum doesn't like to be woken up. I thought she might have been up already." The Doctor nodded and kneeled so he was the girl's height.

"Well, why don't we-" Suddenly a buzzing from the sonic cut him off. He pulled it out and checked the readings. "Oh, no. Erm, the TARDIS is having… problems. River, could you help her get to sleep? I've really got to go before she explodes and possibly punches a hole in the space time continuum!" Eloise looked at him as he headed for the door, puzzled.

"Hang on a minute, honey." River said. She rushed towards the Doctor and caught him right before he hit the entryway.

"What am I supposed to do?" She asked.

"Well, I don't want you in the TARDIS right now- it's too dangerous, so…tell her a story or something." The Doctor urged, turning to open the door. River caught his arm before he could leave.

"I don't know any stories! I was raised by aliens who trained me as an assassin to kill you; do you really think they had fairy tale books lying around?" She whispered fiercely.

"Well, make up something! I can't do it, I have to fix the TARDIS. Good luck." He smiled and bounded out the door before River could get in another word edgewise.

"Alright, Eloise," River said with a sigh, "let's go back up to your room." Eloise nodded and led her by the hand up the stairs and into her room. It was simple, with a bed, a desk, and a few boxes for clothes the only large features, but the wood floor was covered in rugs and the room was warm. A few small toys were scattered near the foot of the bed, left from the middle of playtime.

"You're the Doctor's friend?" The little girl asked.

"I'm his wife." River said, smiling.

"Really?"

"Yes." She paused a moment. "So, bad dreams, hm? I used to have those a lot." The girl nodded sadly. Poor thing- it's never fun to wake up from a scary dream in a dark house.

"Are you going to tell me a story?" Eloise asked, slipping under the pile of blankets on the bed. River noticed a stool beside the desk and pulled it over, sitting beside the bed.

"Well, I'll certainly try. I'm afraid I'm not very good at telling stories." River said, subconsciously placing a hand on her stomach.

"It's ok. I've heard them all anyways." She said. "They're mostly boring." River laughed.

"Alright, then. Let's see…" River thought for a moment. She didn't know any stories! Not any good ones. All the fairy tales Amy had tried to read her she'd mostly forgotten, except that there was usually a king and queen, and a princess in distress, which never appealed to her. The princess could always save herself if she _really_ wanted to. As a time traveler, her life was one big mess, so pretty much the only stories she knew were from her archeological studies, and they were about-

The Doctor. And her. Their _life_.

That could work.

She would just have to… fairy-tale-ify it.

"Once upon a time there was a brave king and his kind queen." She began. "They had a new baby girl, the princess, whom they loved very much-"

"What was her name?" Eloise asked. "The princess?"

"Umm… Melody. Princess Melody." Why not? River didn't use that name anymore. Eloise smiled.

"I've never heard of a princess named Melody. They're always named after flowers. Melody's a nice name." She said. River chuckled and went back to the story.

"Well, when Melody was very little, no more than a few months old, she was kidnapped." Eloise's eyes grew wide.

"By a witch?" _Sure, ok,_ thought River. _I'll go with this._ _Kovarian's close enough._

"Yes, by an evil witch." River said, smiling. "The witch and her helpers took the girl and... locked her away. Locked her away somewhere far away where nobody could ever find her."

"No! Why?" Eloise cried, holding her bear tighter. River could have laughed- Eloise had obviously never heard _this_ story- but instead of laughing she nodded solemnly and continued.

"The witch thought she could use her to rule the kingdom when she was older. The king and queen looked for years, but no one could figure out where the witch was keeping her hidden."

"Where was that?" The girl asked. River didn't have an answer for that one.

"Where do you think it was?" She asked, searching the smaller girl's eyes playfully.

"Um… I think she was in a tower like Rapunzel." River had a vague recollection of Rapunzel, but not enough to do more than nod and make a mental note to read the fairy tale again.

"Well, people searched and searched, but they couldn't find the tower. It took them so long that the princess grew up there, and she wasn't a baby any longer. The witch could see the people searching, and she thought she had the princess hidden for good."

"So? How did they get her out?" Eloise asked. Well, the Doctor wasn't exactly a prince, so how on earth was he going to fit into this mad fairy tale? Ah-ha!

"The king and queen's best friend was a wizard-"

"Huh-uh." Eloise protested, shaking her head.

"Why not?" River asked.

"Wizards are old and mean and ugly. They don't like nice kings and queens."

"Not this wizard," River said, tapping her nose playfully, eyes drifting to someplace far away as she continued, "This wizard was old, but he looked young and handsome, and he was kinder than any man they'd ever known." Eloise bit her lip in thought.

"Ok." She said, which River took as acceptance and prodding to go on.

"The wizard liked to travel a lot, and it took the king and queen a long time to find him, but when they did he used his magic to try to find the princess."

"Did it work?"

"In a way. He found the princess locked alone in the tower, but it wasn't what he was expecting. The witch had told her lies and taught her to hate the king and queen-"

"And the wizard?"

"And the wizard. The witch didn't some often- she only stopped by to deliver food every now and then, so the wizard stayed. And no matter how much she hated him, he was never bitter or unkind towards her; only loving. He never raised his voice." River's eyes focused on someplace far away for a moment too long, and Eloise tugged at her sleeve to bring her back to reality.

"Did they fall in love?" The little girl asked.

"Yes." River said. "And when the time came for them to run away to the king and queen, the wizard nearly died in the escape."

"What?" Eloise gasped. "He can't die!"

"The… witch tried to kill him." River said distastefully, knowing that bit of the story probably wouldn't fit. "But the princess saved his life."

"How?" The girl's eyes were shining- she was completely immersed in the story.

"With a kiss," said a voice from behind. River turned to see the Doctor walking in. "She saved his life with a kiss." River smiled.

"Isn't that what the prince usually does?" Eloise asked.

"Not in this story." The Doctor said, laughing.

"How long have you been standing there?"

"A while…" He said, placing a soft kiss on River's forehead. "Finish the story, dear. You're doing brilliantly." River sighed and went on.

"The wizard and the princess went back to the king and queen, and-"

"And then they got married and lived happily ever after!" Eloise finished excitedly.

"Yes." The Doctor said. "Yes, they did." River stood, told Eloise goodnight, and turned to leave with her husband.

"River?" The girl said, and River turned.

"Yes?"

"Did the princess and the wizard ever have kids?" River thought for a moment, casting a sidelong glance at the Doctor.

"You know, I think they did." The Doctor's face visibly changed, but Eloise didn't notice. "Goodnight, honey." River turned out the lamp and the pair walked down the stairs and into the lobby.

"River…," the Doctor began, "was that your way of telling me you're pregnant?" River bit her lip and nodded.

"Yes."

"And is it…?" The Doctor asked, slightly concerned. River rolled her eyes and slapped him.

"Of course it's yours, you idiot!" River said. "Who else would it be? Don't answer that." She added as the Doctor started to open his mouth. Rather than comment he simply laughed and kissed her.

"So, how do you plan to break this to your parents?" River shrugged and returned the kiss.

"I'll figure it out. Happy New Year, love." She said.

"Happy New Year."


End file.
